The Reef (2006)

Short Attention Span Summary (SASS)

1. Boy fish meets girl fish

2. Bigger boy fish has his lateral eyes on the same girl fish

3. Boy fishes compete to win girl fish's fin in marriage

4. You already know how this is going to end

You'll get a strong feeling of déjà vu when watching this movie. Not only are the underwater locations familiar, especially the reef, the ocean current and the shipwreck, but the characters also, like the shark, the turtle, the jellyfish, the shrimp, the pelican, the starfish and the "henchmen". There's even a bit of "The Karate Kid" in there when a wise old ninja turtle helps out the underdogfish.

You'll also find that the majority of the scenes have been done before in other movies, and better. Taken on its own it's an average kids' movie, but the "borrowing" is so blatant that it's impossible to classify it as an original movie.

You've seen most of this before in Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid and Shark Tale, so no need to waste money on this one. Let the kids catch it on cable if they want to.

Amanda Richards, March 22, 2008

The was the first film which made my 2 year-old cry. At the begining of the film you meet the parents in the sludge of Boston, talking about moving to the reef. Then the net comes and gets all of them, mother, father, and child. The child escapes but the mother and father are dragged away in the net leaving the child crying "mom, dad..." and then he is sad for for a while while traveling to the reef with a bunch of porpoises. Seeing the parents carried off was too visual with crying out over and over, and didn't have to be part of the film at all. How about the parent decide to move and they all go there? It wouldn't have changed the rest off the movie at all. My 12 year-old, husband, and I didn't like that they had to put this strife in and it, and in a really upsetting way. It didn't seem to fit with the rest of the film other than traveling with the porpoises but they all could have traveled with the porpoises. Later having it said that, your parents are sushi now kid, didn't help with me liking this film. Luckily this is way over most kids heads

This was not done as well as "Shark Tale" animation wise or story wise. It cannot even be compared to "Finding Nemo". The story after the parents demise was OK, and just that. Predictable but children may like it. Parent won't.

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This was one of the worst cartoons I have ever seen. It was so close to Barney in annoyance that I wanted to drag it behind my car on fire. I cannot imagine how this won a award with the mix of FINDING NEMO and NINJA TURTLES. I am sure that the grief is not worth the time or money!

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A very good argument could be made that of all the genres of computer generated feature film, none are as popular as the underwater/ talking fish angle. Sure you've heard of Finding Nemo and maybe Shark Tale but what about Dolphin the Story of a Dreamer, Legend of the Sea, Sea Level, A Turtle Tale: Sammy's Adventure or this, The Reef? I can't say I've made it through all of the "Grade B" underwater titles mentioned above, I can safely state that The Reef may be the strongest of the lot and contrary to common belief, not just because the others are so bad.

For starters The Reef isn't your average second-rate CG feature right from the get-go just in the fact that it is an original American film (co-produced by South Korean animators) rather than the much more common (and annoying) trend of importing a foreign CG film and slapping a hackneyed English script atop the mismatched mouth flaps.

Additionally, The Reef is unique in that though it was designed right from the get-go for an American release, it never made the big-screen rounds; instead arriving as a direct-to-dvd piece back in 2007. Obviously this tells us not to expect inflated budget Pixar magic right out of the gate, but even with a modest bankroll and limited distribution, The Reef manages to succeed on many levels.

The story certainly won't dazzle in terms of originality, but it's decent enough to carry the film: Pi (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), lives happily with his parents in the heavily polluted waters of Boston Harbor, until a boat harvests many of the area fish in a net. Pi's parents manage to help him escape the net, but cannot themselves get free. Orphaned, Pi is then taken in by some kindhearted porpoises and escorted to the distant reef where he is to stay with his aunt Pearl (Fran Drescher) and cousin Dylan (Andy Dick).

With a much richer color pallet and rapid decrease in pollution, Pi's new home looks like the type of place for a fish to kick back until Cordelia (Evan Rachel Wood) comes into the picture. A model with her eye on the Pi, things could be reef-tastic for these two fishies if not for Troy (Donal Logue), a slightly unstable tiger shark who not only gets his kicks tormenting everyone on the reef, but is also scheming on Cordelia himself.

Fortunately Pi learns about Nerissa (Rob Schneider), a reclusive wise old turtle who dwells in the wreck of an old pirate ship. Under Nerissa's tutelage, Pi hopes to win over Cordelia without becoming shark bait in the process.

So while this certainly feels like "been there, done that" territory, The Reef is surprisingly solid thanks to a script laced with humor and just enough cleverness to appeal to the adults while the little-ones clamor to the bright colors and crisp visuals. The cast, which on paper looks like a virtual train wreck (I mean Andy Dick and Fran Drescher in the same film... with Freddie Prinze Jr in the lead? Eeks!), manages to bring a surprisingly enjoyable flavor to the formula. Prinze delivers his least monotone repertoire to date and Donal Logue brings a wonderful bully to the character of Troy with hints of early Travolta thrown in for good measure. A perfectly cast John Rhys-Davies handles both narration duty as well as brings his A-game to the role of the tale-telling walrus Thorton and the character's name eludes me now but the simple-minded eel lackey of Troy's who comes off as a subdued Christopher Walken is especially memorable.

I have noticed many critics slam The Reef for its lack of originality and there is some validity to such concerns but to my way of thinking, treading proven ground is far more forgivable than creating an original film that stinks of its own volition (watch Dolphin the Story of a Dreamer for more on this phenomenon).

In closing my research for this review has revealed Weinstein Company's plans of releasing a sequel to this film for 2012 (The Reef 2: High Tide)proof that occasionally films with more heart than budget get recognized for what they are.

Want The Reef (2006) Discount?

Got this under 10$ and im glad i bought it. Some reviewers hate it cause

it looks like other movies. Ive seen all other movies like Shark's take and

nemo...but when you like a movie, you want to see more of it...so this

movie is like a extension of other movies that i like... Cant lose with

this deal.

Anyway i enjoyed the reef, and cant wait for more computer animated movies.

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